Futurist Foresight - Applied Technotopia
A quick update on the Spacefleet EARL Project.
Artist conception of Spacefleet’s EARL vehicle (Credit: Spacefleet)
*Wiltshire, England (Spacefleet PR) –* We have recently found a contractor and agreed terms on building a scale model of the EARL spacecraft, Kingfisher Aviation.
The business plan for the Spacefleet EARL project is now attracting serious interest from some potential investors. As the project progresses we expect to have much more to report, shortly.
A look at commercial space and Planetary Resources.
Say hello to ARKYD! Pronounced ahrk-kid. An orbiting space telescope that will be open for public and educational use to popularize, promote, and help educate people about not only the cosmos, but the importance of space exploration itself! Take a minute to click here and learn a a little more about this project aimed to help people the world over including students, scientists, and future generations of explorers, who have the ability to use the ARKYD in ways that we can’t even imagine yet!
“At Planetary Resources, our primary focus is mining asteroids, and we’re pushing the boundaries of what is possible by vertically integrating and applying innovations from consumer-based industries. It’s our goal to reduce the cost of space observatories many times over, allowing anyone to access them for their own use. We want to empower the crowd to solve the big problems of our time — and this is the first step to making that a reality.” [via ARKYD KickStarter page.]
So what exactly does this mean for you, and what can you do to help?
Take a photo of yourself in space!
The ARKYD is a space telescope. High-resolution photos of objects in space are taken by it’s main, large optic. Something that is strikingly different about this space telescope is it’s external screen and camera arm, that allows the telescope to not only take photos of the ARKYD itself in space, above Earth, but take images of what ever is projected on the screen.
This is where you come in: The very external screen just explained above, is available for use by regular citizens. You can have your own photo, or graphic, displayed on the external screen as it orbit’s Earth, and the camera arm will proceed to take an image of your personal image in space! In the hopes of popularizing this amazing chance of stellar personal imagery, these images taken in space of regular citizen’s images are being called “Space Selfies”, and can even be displayed on the community page if you so wish to share your special image!
These space selfless are encouraged to be shared all over the internet, from Facebook for your friends and family to see, to Twitter, Tumblr, and anywhere else you please. This is encouraged because the space selfless are aimed to be a catalyst to giving other’s, who don’t yet know about ARKYD, a taste of the “Overview Effect”, which is basically a psychological phenomenon that is experienced by most astronauts who spend time in outer-space above Earth, and thusly feel “the imperative to protect our planet”.
Use the telescope’s main optic to take beautiful photos of outer space!
Help study distant galaxies, or search for possibly dangerous asteroids. ARKYD’s photographic capabilities include: objects within our solar system, distant galaxies and nebulae, and even images of Earth! The ARKYD is also capable of performing photometric applications such as determining the spin-rate of an asteroid. Even if you’re not knowledgeable about where to look, or what to look for to take photos in space, then you can use Google Sky to see some examples of images of space we already have as a collective species.
Use your telescope time to support important science education!
A very important part of this mission is to inspire and educate future generations, specifically, as well as the whole of the human population with information and images of outer-space, and space exploration. You can use your personal telescope time to help researchers conduct scientific inquiry, or allow current-students to learn about the endlessly amazing cosmos. This mission will also be working with a museum or science center to create unique educational curriculums and an interactive, as well as a hopeful ARKYD-themed exhibit that is currently in the works.
This is aimed at not only students and people within North America, but any where around the world. The only way we can further our space exploration and funding is through popularization and education. Because Engineering and Space Sciences are considered two of the most complicated subjects when being taught in primary educational settings, students rarely get to begin to understand, or even work with real science and are instead given uninteresting material that is more times than not, difficult for them to even try to grasp intellectually.
With the ARKYD, we’re giving teachers and students alike a chance to bring a hands-on learning experience into the classroom with a publicly accessed space telescope, learning things such as how it is launched, how it works, and more. What child seeing space with his own eyes, whilst controlling parts of a space telescope as it travels over the Earth at five miles per second, would not fall in love with what he or she saw? Much less science itself?
Go here, and here to learn more about the ARKYD and support it!
Planetary Resources crowdfunds its ARKYD space telescopes.
ARKYD: A Space Telescope for Everyone
Join the first crowd funded space telescope project by Planetary Resources
(via niceskynewworld)
“Mars is a fixer-upper of a planet, but we could make it work.” - Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s quote from D11
http://space-pics.tumblr.com/
“Watch Live: Planetary Resources Opening the Space Frontier to All” http://feedly.com/k/13j5i9Y
The inflatable Bigelow Space Station has been talked about for years. We are hoping that this 2015 date becomes a reality.
Photo Credit: Bigelow Aerospace
SpaceX could launch an $18 million Bigelow inflatable module to the station from Cape Canaveral as soon as mid-2015.
NASA intends to use the information to figure out where it can collaborate with private space initiatives and where it might, for example, entirely skip an expensive research and development program and just buy services or hardware commercially… READ On
The Dutch company Mars One is looking for colonist for Mars for 2023. They will be announcing more details about the selection process today.
“Mars One is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to establish a human settlement on Mars through the integration of existing, readily available technologies from industry leaders world-wide. Mars One intends to fund this decade-long endeavor by involving the whole world as the audience of an interactive, televised broadcast of every aspect of this mission, from the astronaut selections and their preparations to the arrival on Mars and their lives on the Red Planet.” - Mars One
A few more photos of Orbital Sciences Antares rocket launch on the 21st April.
A Successful Launch Adds Competition To The Private Space Industry
At 5 p.m. today, the first Antares test rocket from NASA’s commercial partner, Orbital Sciences Corp., finally lifted off from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, after being delayed by a technical issue on Wednesday and by high winds yesterday.
The unmanned rocket launched a payload into orbit as a test run for a resupply trip it is scheduled to make to the International Space Station later this year. When it makes its real cargo trip in June or July, Orbital Sciences will only become the second private company ever to dock with the station.
John Holdren, the president’s science advisor, had this to say in a statement on the White House’s website: “With NASA focusing on the challenging and exciting task of sending humans deeper into space than ever before, private companies will be crucial in taking the baton for American cargo and crew launches into low-Earth orbit.”
Of course, part of the reason private companies will be so crucial in the future of our space exploration is that we keep cutting NASA’s funding. Without commercial cargo supply runs from the California-based SpaceX, NASA has to rely on Russian, Japanese and European rocket launches, as Space.com points out. Adding another commercial supplier to the mix will break up SpaceX’s monopoly on ISS-bound cargo.
You can check out more photos from the launch on NASA’s Flickr page.
Another step forward for the commercial space industry with the launch of Orbital Sciences Antares rocket.
Orbital Sciences Antares rocket successfully launched at 5 p.m., Sunday, April 21 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad 0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
All system nominal. The Antares launch vehicle made its maiden flight Sunday, launching from Pad 0A at the Wallops Flight Facility, Va. at 5 p.m. Eastern time on a test flight that served as the precursor for a demonstration flight of its Cygnus resupply ship to the International Space Station later this year. Antares will be delivering a mass simulator payload to orbit 10 minutes after launch designed to mimic the Cygnus spacecraft’s weight and characteristics.via NASAtelevision
A huge vote of confidence for asteroid mining firm Planetary Resources.
“Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, Inc. announced this week that engineering giant Bechtel has joined their core group of investors and will be a collaborative partner in helping them to achieve its long-term mission, which is to mine near-Earth asteroids for raw materials, ranging from elements used in rocket fuel to precious metals, through the development of innovative and cost-effective robotic exploration technologies. Planetary Resources says that they already have multiple contracts to develop miniaturized and responsive technologies with far-reaching applications to space assessment, accessibility and resource recovery.” - Scienceworldreport.com
(Photo : Planetary Resources)
“Orbiting the asteroid, the Arkyd 300 ‘Rendezvous Prospector’ will collect data on the asteroid’s shape, rotation, density, and surface and sub-surface composition.”
